The One With The Screamer
"The One With The Screamer" is the twenty-second episode of the third season of Friends, which aired on April 24, 1997. Plot Joey gets tickets for his friends to see him premiere in the play. Rachel is surprised to hear Ross is bringing a date, and comes with Tommy, a seemingly perfectly normal guy. However, he turns out to be mentally ill, yelling his throat hoarse at an elderly couple sitting in his and Ross' seats for no neccessary reason, and then calming down instantly. However, as Ross is the only witness to this, Rachel doesn't believe him when he tries to warn her that Tommy is mentally ill, assuming he's just making up the story about Tommy screaming at the elderly couple and then calming down instantly in order to split them up and have her all to himself. The play takes place, and Ross blows his date off when he starts focusing attention on Tommy (waiting for him to scream his head off) rather than on her. She leaves, and the director brings the early edition of the newspaper containing the review of the play. He's furious to find that the review is pretty much abysmal about everything, even the direction, and storms off. Katie, still destroyed by the review, reveals to Joey that the director dumped her after the review, and Joey supports her by staying with her at her apartment, where she passes out, and the two spend "the night" - talking to each other about their feelings. Soon after, Ross, still disapproving of Tommy, almost spills hot coffee over him. The madman stars ranting and shouting insults at Ross before calming down just as instantly as he did before. Rachel still hangs out with Tommy despite Ross' advice, but when she, Monica, Phoebe, Chandler and Ross see the headcase shout and rant insults at the chick and the duck, she and the others realize Ross was right about him being mentally ill, and when Tommy can see that they are all clearly scared of him now, the lunatic breaks up with her before leaving. Joey's new relationship with Katie does not last long, as Katie obtains a part in General Hospital in LA and leaves Joey, not without watching him perform the play with understudy Lauren. Phoebe spends a lot of time on the phone support line to claim the warranty on her broken phone. The support line keeps telling Phoebe that she's next in line, but Phoebe never gets picked up. She keeps herself busy by swapping Monica's and Rachel's stuff in each other's rooms, but when two days pass and she's still not picked up (by a Utah number, contrary to what Phoebe believed was a toll-free number), the guys make her. Phoebe breaks Monica's phone in the process, and she gives Monica the number of the company she can call. Cast and Crew Main Cast Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Green Courtney Cox - Monica Geller Lisa Kudrow - Phoebe Buffay Matt LeBlanc - Joey Tribbiani Ben Stiller - Tommy Supporting Cast Jon Favreau - Pete Becker Dina Meyer - Kate Miller June Gable - Estelle Leonard Jennifer Milmore - Lauren James Michael Tyler - Gunther Jeff Brooks - Stage Manager Peter Bonerz - Theater Patron Scott Sandler - Jonny Crew Directed By: Peter Bonerz Written By: Shana Goldberg-Meehan & Scott Silveri Trivia *Although not really a running gag on the show, Phoebe is shown to be quite accident-prone, and also has a tendency to ruin most things she touches. **In this episode, she breaks her own and Monica's phones. **In The One With The Flashback, she reveals to Monica that she stained her couch pillow from one side with an ink dot, and with a big spaghetti stain on the other. **In The One With The Hypnosis Tape, she stains her tablecloth with mustard (although she does this as bait for Alice to talk her out of marrying her little brother Frank Jr.). **In The One With All The Candy, she keeps falling off the bike she receives as a gift from Ross (until she has Stabilizers attached to her bike at the end of the episode). **In The One Where Chandler Takes A Bath, Phoebe returns Monica's iron only to reveal that she had broken it. **In The One With The Lottery, she drops the bowl that holds all the lottery tickets on the street. Goofs *When the director is reading the paper about the play, Ross moves place without time to do so. *Before the director reads the review, he says "Ah, Boxing Day.", even though the episode aired in April. It is possible that this season was meant to be broadcast over two years, before last-minute scheduling changes and a fourth season renewal. *Goof: When Tommy is screaming at the chick, he's holding paper he used to clean his hands. He puts the paper down, but when the camera angle changes it's in his hand again *Goof: The morning after the play, Monica comes out of her bedroom and greets Phoebe. But the night before, Phoebe switched Monica and Rachel's bedroom around. So Monica should have come out of Rachel's bedroom, not her normal bedroom *Goof: When Gunther brings Chandler the cup of coffee from the woman at the bar, Chandler does not take it by the handle. However the shot quickly switches to him holding it by the handle. 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